This morning I was reading by lamplight in our cozy living room, with all the curtains closed. My six-year-old son slid across the wood floors toward the front windows, shouting, “Mommy open your curtains! You’re totally missing the sky!”
I was totally missing it. “Sky 2020” has been quite a show, especially this fall. The colors of the sunrises and sunsets have been glow-y and golden and fiery. My sister and I both texted each other a photo of the sky this morning.
I have been praying for extra mercies for Chriss and her husband Mark this week. He is in the hospital recovering from major surgery, and he is there alone because of COVID. Chriss can only get updates on his pain levels by phone. But Mark is not alone.
The sunrise today was a reminder that he is not suffering alone in the hospital. Chriss is not suffering alone in the house as she quarantines and waits for updates from the nurses.
God is near when we go through hard things. He pours out mercies each new day to support us as we go through deep waters.
On her podcast last Friday, author Tsh Oxenreider talked about beauty, and the fact that it serves no concrete purpose. The sun could set in a very utilitarian, non-beautiful way, like a dimmer switch in a beige cubicle slowing going down. But sunsets are beautiful. They have been happening for millenia, but they still stop us in our tracks. Tsh says, “It’s a sacrament because there is no other purpose for it than to point to the divine.”
The sunrise this morning pointed me straight to the Divine. The sky reminded me that his mercies are new every morning, for when we are suffering hard, and when we are not suffering at all. Every day, no matter what is happening, that is good news.
“It’s a sacrament because there is no other purpose for it than to point to the divine.”
– Tsh Oxenreider, The Good List podcast
“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Lamentations 3:22-23
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
Psalm 19:1-4
PS. I am so thankful for all the nurses. When I stand outside the hospital building and think about all those patients in there alone (because of COVID – no care partner is allowed in the room), I realize that those nurses are doing their normal job + caregiving for every patient + living their own 2020 story. Thank you nurses.
New Every Morning 